Life and career

1986–2004: Early life

Stefani Germanotta was born on March 28, 1986, the eldest child of Joseph Germanotta, an Italian American internet entrepreneur, and Cynthia Bissett. She learned to play piano from the age of four, went on to write her first piano ballad at 13 and began performing at open mike nights by age 14. At the age of 11, Germanotta attended Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private Roman Catholic school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, but has stressed that she does not come from a wealthy background, saying that her parents “both came from lower-class families, so we’ve worked for everything — my mother worked eight to eight out of the house, in telecommunications, and so did my father.” An avid thespian in high school musicals, Germanotta portrayed lead roles as Adelaide in Guys and Dolls and Philia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. She described her academic life in high school as “very dedicated, very studious, very disciplined” but also “a bit insecure” as she told in an interview, “I used to get made fun of for being either too provocative or too eccentric, so I started to tone it down. I didn’t fit in, and I felt like a freak.” Acquaintances dispute that she did not fit in school. “She had a core group of friends; she was a good student. She liked boys a lot, but singing was No. 1,” recalled a former high school classmate. Referring to her “expressive, free spirit”, Gaga told Elle magazine “I’m left-handed!”
At age 17, Germanotta gained early admission to the New York University‘s Tisch School of the Arts on August 23, 2003 and lived in a NYU dorm on 11th Street. There she studied music and improved her songwriting skills by composing essays and analytical papers focusing on topics such as art, religion, social issues and politics. Germanotta felt that she was more creative than some of her classmates. “Once you learn how to think about art, you can teach yourself,” she said. By the second semester of her sophomore year, she withdrew from the school to focus on her musical career. Her father agreed to pay her rent for a year, on the condition that she re-enroll for Tisch if she was unsuccessful. “I left my entire family, got the cheapest apartment I could find, and ate shit until somebody would listen,” she said.

2005–07: Career beginnings

Germanotta had initially signed with Def Jam Recordings at the age of 19, although she was dropped by the label after only three months. Shortly after, her former management company introduced her to songwriter and producer RedOne, whom they also managed. The first song she produced with RedOne was “Boys Boys Boys”http://www.youtube.com/v/5qTw1kkFvlU?fs=1&hl=en_US, a mash-up inspired by Mötley Crüe‘s “Girls, Girls, Girls” and AC/DC‘s “T.N.T.” She moved into an apartment on the Lower East Side and recorded a couple of songs with hip-hop singer Grandmaster Melle Mel for an audio book accompanying the children’s book The Portal in the Park by Cricket Casey. She also started the Stefani Germanotta Band with some friends from NYU. They recorded an EP of their ballads at a studio underneath a liquor store in New Jersey, becoming a local fixture at the downtown Lower East Side club scene. She began experimenting with drugs soon after, while performing at neo-burlesque shows. Her father did not understand the reason behind her drug intake and could not look at her for several months.Music producer Rob Fusari, who helped her write some of her earlier songs, compared her vocal style to that of Freddie Mercury. Fusari helped create the moniker Gaga, after the Queen song “Radio Ga Ga“.http://www.youtube.com/v/LncAQR47eZo?fs=1&hl=en_US Germanotta was in the process of trying to come up with a stage name when she received a text message from Fusari that read “Lady Gaga.” He explained,

“Every day, when Stef came to the studio, instead of saying hello, I would start singing ‘Radio Ga Ga’. That was her entrance song. [Lady Gaga] was actually a glitch; I typed ‘Radio Ga Ga’ in a text and it did an autocorrect so somehow ‘Radio’ got changed to ‘Lady’. She texted me back, “That’s it.” After that day, she was Lady Gaga. She’s like, “Don’t ever call me Stefani again.”

Gaga performing at “The Bazaar” in Atlanta, Georgia.

She was known thereafter as Lady Gaga. The New York Post, however, has reported that this story is incorrect, and that the name resulted from a marketing meeting.
Throughout 2007, Gaga collaborated with performance artist Lady Starlight, who helped create her onstage fashions. The pair began playing gigs at downtown club venues like the Mercury Lounge, The Bitter End, and the Rockwood Music Hall, with their live performance art piece known as “Lady Gaga and the Starlight Revue.” Billed as “The Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow”, their act was a low-fi tribute to 1970s variety acts. In August 2007, Gaga and Starlight were invited to play at the American Lollapalooza music festival. The show was critically acclaimed, and their performance received positive reviews. Having initially focused on avant-garde and electronic dance music, Gaga found her musical niche when she began to incorporate pop melodies and the vintage glam rock of David Bowie and Queen into her music.http://www.youtube.com/v/Oz96QaLhfZs?fs=1&hl=en_US

2008–present: The Fame and The Fame Monster

By 2008, Gaga had relocated to Los Angeles, working closely with her record label to finalize her debut album The Fame. She combined different genres on the album, “from Def Leppard drums and hand claps to metal drums on urban tracks“. The Fame received positive reviews from critics; according to the music review aggregation of Metacritic, it garnered an average score of 71/100. The album peaked at number one in Austria, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland, and the top-five in Australia and the United States. Its lead single “Just Dance“, topped the charts in six countries—Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and later received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording. The following single, “Poker Face“, was an even greater success, reaching number-one in almost all major music markets in the world, including the United Kingdom and the United States. It won the award for Best Dance Recording at the 52nd Grammy Awards, over nominations for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The Fame was nominated for Album of the Year; it won the Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album.[ Although her first concert tour happened as an opening act for fellow Interscope pop group, the reformed New Kids on the Block, she ultimately headlined her own concert tour, The Fame Ball Tour, which began on March 2009.

Gaga was chosen as of one the “10 Most Fascinating People of 2009” by Barbara Walters during Walters’ annual ABC News special.http://www.youtube.com/v/uDS0GCQ9cTs?fs=1&hl=en_US When interviewed by the journalist, the singer went to dismiss the claim that she is intersex as an urban legend, responding to a question on this issue by stating: “At first it was very strange and everyone sorta said, ‘That’s really quite a story!’ But in a sense, I portray myself in a very androgynous way, and I love androgyny.” In January 2010, she was named chief creative officer for a line of imaging products for Polaroid, stating that she will create fashion, technology and photography products. The second single from The Fame Monster, “Telephone“,http://www.youtube.com/v/EVBsypHzF3U?fs=1&hl=en_US which features R&B singer Beyoncé, became her fourth UK number-one single. In March, Rob Fusari sued Gaga’s production company Mermaid Music LLC, claiming that he was entitled to a 20% share of its earnings. Gaga’s lawyer Charles Ortner described the agreement with Fusari as “unlawful” and declined to comment. In April, it was reported that her music videos gained over one billion viral views, becoming one of the first artists to reach this milestone. Later that month, Gaga was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of the year. In May, in an interview with The Times, Gaga hinted at having Systemic lupus erythematosus, commonly referred to as lupus, which is a connective tissue disease. In an interview with Larry King, Gaga confirmed that she does not have lupus but the results were borderline positive.
By March 2010, in an interview with MTV United Kingdom, Gaga stated that she had begun work on her new studio album and already finished writing the core theme of it. Three months later, in an interview with Rolling Stone, she stated that her third studio album was finished but will not be released until 2011. She said: “It came so quickly. I’ve been working on it for months, and I feel very strongly that it’s finished right now. Some artists take years. I don’t. I write music every day.” She also stated that she’s planning to announce the new album’s title at midnight on New Year’s Eve by tattooing it to her body.

Musical style and influences

Gaga has been influenced by glam rock artists such as David Bowie and Queen, as well as pop music artists such as Madonna, Britney Spears and Michael Jackson. The Queen song “Radio Ga Ga” inspired her stage name, “Lady Gaga”.= She commented: “I adored Freddie Mercury and Queen had a hit called ‘Radio Gaga’. That’s why I love the name […] Freddie was unique – one of the biggest personalities in the whole of pop music.” Madonna told Rolling Stone that she sees “[her]self in Lady Gaga.” In response to the comparisons between herself and Madonna, Gaga stated: “I don’t want to sound presumptuous, but I’ve made it my goal to revolutionise pop music. The last revolution was launched by Madonna 25 years ago.” Actress and singer Grace Jones was also cited as an inspiration, along with Blondie singer Debbie Harry.

Gaga’s vocals have drawn frequent comparison to those of Madonna and Gwen Stefani, while the structure of her music is said to echo classic 1980s pop and 1990s Europop. While reviewing her debut album The Fame, The Sunday Times asserted “in combining music, fashion, art and technology, Lady GaGa evokes Madonna, Gwen Stefani circa ‘Hollaback Girl‘, Kylie Minogue 2001 or Grace Jones right now.” Similarly, The Boston Globe critic Sarah Rodman commented that she draws “obvious inspirations from Madonna to Gwen Stefani… in [her] girlish but sturdy pipes and bubbly beats.” Though her lyrics are said to lack intellectual stimulation, “[she] does manage to get you moving and grooving at an almost effortless pace.”Music critic Simon Reynolds wrote that “Everything about Gaga came from electroclash, except the music, which wasn’t particularly 1980s, just ruthlessly catchy noughties pop glazed with Auto-Tune and undergirded with R&B-ish beats.
Gaga has identified fashion as a major influence.She considers Donatella Versace her muse. Gaga has her own creative production team called the Haus of Gaga, which she handles personally. The team creates many of her clothes, stage props, and hairdos. Her love of fashion came from her mother, who she stated was “always very well kept and beautiful.” “When I’m writing music, I’m thinking about the clothes I want to wear on stage. It’s all about everything altogether—performance art, pop performance art, fashion. For me, it’s everything coming together and being a real story that will bring back the super-fan. I want to bring that back. I want the imagery to be so strong that fans will want to eat and taste and lick every part of us.” The Global Language Monitor named “Lady Gaga” as the Top Fashion Buzzword with her trademark “no pants” coming in at No. 3. Entertainment Weekly put her outfits on its end of the decade “best-of” list, saying, “Whether it’s a dress made of Muppets or strategically placed bubbles, Gaga’s outré ensembles brought performance art into the mainstream.”

Critical reception of Gaga’s music, fashion sense and persona are mixed. Her status as a role model, trailblazer and fashion icon is by turns affirmed and denied. Gaga’s albums have received mostly positive reviews, with critics pointing out her unique place in pop music, the need for new movements in popular culture, the attention Gaga brings to important social issues, and the inherently subjective nature of her art. Her role as a self-esteem booster for her fans is also lauded, as is her role in breathing life into the fashion industry. Her performances are described as “highly entertaining and innovative”; in particular, the blood-spurting performance of “Paparazzi” at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards was described as “eye-popping” by MTV. She continued the “blood soaked” theme in The Monster Ball Tour, in which she wears a revealing leather corset and is “attacked” by a performer dressed in black who gnaws on her throat, causing “blood” to spurt down her chest, after which she lies “dying” in a pool of blood. Her performances of that scene in Manchester, England triggered protests from family groups and fans in the aftermath of a local tragedy, in which a taxi driver had murdered 12 people. “What happened in Bradford is very fresh in people’s minds and given all the violence which happened in Cumbria just hours earlier, it was insensitive,” said Lynn Costello of Mothers Against Violence. Chris Rock later defended her flamboyant, provocative behavior. “Well, she’s Lady Gaga,” he said. “She’s not ‘Lady Behave Yourself.’ Do you want great behavior from a person named Gaga? Is this what you were expecting?”
Gaga’s treatment of her fans as “Little Monsters” has inspired additional criticism, due to the highly commercial nature of her music and image. To some, this dichotomy contravenes the concept of outsider culture. Writing for The Guardian, Kitty Empire opined that the dichotomy “…allows the viewer to have a ‘transgressive’ experience without being required to think. At [her performance’s] core, though, is the idea that Gaga is at one with the freaks and outcasts. The Monster Ball is where we can all be free. This is arrant nonsense, as the scads of people buying Gaga’s cunningly commercial music are not limited to the niche worlds of drag queens and hip night creatures from which she draws her inspiration. But Gaga seems sincere.”

Public image

Contrary to her subsequent outré style, the New York Post described her early look as like “a refugee from Jersey Shore” with “big black hair, heavy eye makeup and tight, revealing clothes.” Gaga is a natural brunette, however she bleached her hair blonde, because she was often mistaken for Amy Winehouse. She often refers to her fans as her ‘little monsters’ and got a tattoo with that inscription as a tribute. She has another six known tattoos, among them a peace symbol, which was inspired by John Lennon whom she stated was her hero, and a curling German script on her left arm which quotes the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, her favorite philosopher, commenting that his “philosophy of solitude” spoke to her:

Toward the end of 2008, comparisons were made between the fashions of Lady Gaga and recording artist Christina Aguilera, noting similarities in their styling, hair, and make-up. Aguilera later said she was “completely unaware of [Gaga]” and “didn’t know if it [was] a man or a woman.” Gaga released a statement in which she welcomed the comparisons, due to the attention providing useful publicity, saying, “She’s such a huge star and if anything I should send her flowers, because a lot of people in America didn’t know who I was until that whole thing happened. It really put me on the map in a way.” Comparisons continued into 2010 when Christina released the music video of her single “Not Myself Tonight“. Critics noted similarities between the song and its accompanying music video with Gaga’s video for “Bad Romance”.

Gaga attributes much of her early success as a mainstream artist to her gay fans and is considered to be a rising gay icon. Early in her career she had difficulty getting radio airplay, and stated, “The turning point for me was the gay community. I’ve got so many gay fans and they’re so loyal to me and they really lifted me up. They’ll always stand by me and I’ll always stand by them. It’s not an easy thing to create a fanbase.” She thanked FlyLife, a Manhattan-based LGBT marketing company with whom her label Interscope works, in the liner notes of her debut studio album, The Fame, saying, “I love you so much. You were the first heartbeat in this project, and your support and brilliance means the world to me. I will always fight for the gay community hand in hand with this incredible team.” One of her first televised performances was in May 2008 at the NewNowNext Awards, an awards show aired by the LGBT television network Logo, where she sang her song “Just Dance”.http://www.youtube.com/v/l-jHNwC3-E8?fs=1&hl=en_US In June of the same year, she performed the song again at the San Francisco Pride event. After The Fame was released, she revealed that the song “Poker Face” was about her bisexuality. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she spoke about how her boyfriends tended to react to her bisexuality, saying “The fact that I’m into women, they’re all intimidated by it. It makes them uncomfortable. They’re like, ‘I don’t need to have a threesome. I’m happy with just you’.” When she appeared as a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in May 2009, she praised DeGeneres for being “an inspiration for women and for the gay community”.http://www.youtube.com/v/TFgTP47R4Ic?fs=1&hl=en_US She proclaimed that the October 11, 2009, National Equality March rally on the national mall was “the single most important event of her career.” As she exited, she left with an exultant “Bless God and bless the gays,” similar to her 2009 MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech for Best New Artist a month earlier.
Gaga is the most popular living person in terms of social networks. She has more than five million Twitter followers and ten million Facebook fans.

Discography

Lady Gaga is an American recording artist. Her debut studio album The Fame was released by Interscope Records in August 2008. The album has spawned several hit singles, including “Just Dance,” which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording in 2009. The next single “Poker Face” topped nearly all the charts worldwide, and was nominated for a number of Grammy awards including Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and winning Best Dance Recording in 2010.
Along with her hit singles, The Fame itself has earned several awards and nominations; it earned Grammy nominations for Album of the Year, and it won Best Electronic/Dance Album. Gaga herself, along with the music videos released with her singles, have also earned several awards and nominations. In total, Gaga has received eighty-two awards from one hundred and sixty-eight nominations.

ASCAP Awards

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a not-for-profit performance rights organization that protects its members’ musical copyrights by monitoring public performances of their music, whether via a broadcast or live performance, and compensating them accordingly. Gaga has received two awards.

Year

Nominated work

Award

Result

2010

“Just Dance”

Ascap Pop Music Award – Most Performed Songs

Won

“Paparazzi”

Ascap Pop Music Award – Most Performed Songs

Won

BET Awards

The BET Awards were established in 2001 by the Black Entertainment Television network to celebrate African Americans and other minorities in music, acting, sports, and other fields of entertainment over the past year. Gaga has been nominated for two awards and has won one award. GaGa is the first white artist to ever win a BET

Billboard Awards

Billboard Year End Chart Awards

Billboard Music Award is now dicontinued, since 2007, but winners in many categories have been announced by Billboard both in the press and as part of their year-end issue. In 2009,Billboard gave her 9 out of 9 awards. More than any other artist during 2009 according to Billboard year end Charts.

Latin Billboard Music Awards

The Billboard Latin Music Awards grew out of the Billboard Music Awards program from Billboard Magazine, an industry publication charting the sales and radio airplay success of musical recordings. Lady Gaga has been nominated two times

BMI Awards

Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed. Gaga has been received three awards.

Echo Awards

Echo Awards is a German music award granted every year by the Deutsche Phono-Akademie (an association of recording companies). Each year’s winner is determined by the previous year’s sales. Gaga has received four nominations and has won 3 times

Year

Nominated work

Award

Result

2010

Lady Gaga

Best International Female Artist

Won

Best International Newcomer

Won

“Poker Face”

Best International/National Hit of the Year

Won

The Fame

Best International/National Album of the Year

Nominated

ESKA Music Awards

The ESKA Awards were established by the Polish radio station ESKA and are held annually in Poland. Gaga has received one award. And it was the first award that Lady Gaga received in her career.[14]

GLAAD Media Awards

The GLAAD Media Awards were created in 1990 by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to “recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBT community and the issues that affect their lives.” GaGa has been nominated as Outstanding Music Artist for the 21st GLAAD Media Awards and won.

International Dance Music Awards

The Winter Music Conference was established in 1985. It is a part of the Winter Music Conference, a weeklong electronic music event held annually. Gaga has received three awards from seven nominations.

MOBO Awards

The MOBO Awards (an acronym for Music of Black Origin) were established in 1996 by Kanya King. They are held annually in the United Kingdom to recognize artists of any race or nationality performing music of black origin. Gaga has been nominated once.

MP3 Music Awards

The MP3 Music Awards act as a major industry catalyst, creating the conditions to inspire diverse artists / bands and audiences whilst shaping memorable and unforgettable experiences. Gaga has won one award from one nomination.

MTV Video Music Brasil

The MTV Video Music Brasil awards (originally Video Music Awards Brasil), more commonly known as VMB, are MTV Brazil‘s annual award ceremony, established in 1995. Lady GaGa has been received one nomination.

MTV Video Music Awards Japan

The MTV Video Music Awards Japan are one of the major annual awards hosted in Japan every year and award the best of international and domestic videos and artists. Gaga has received 5 nominations in 2010 and won only Best Dance Video.

MTV Video Music Awards

The MTV Video Music Awards were established in 1984 by MTV to celebrate the top music videos of the year. Gaga has received three awards from nine nominations. During 2009,Gaga topped the nomination with Beyoncé and topped also the list of the winners among with Green Day and Beyoncé

Swiss Music Awards

Swiss Music Awards are the annual music awards of Switzerland. Gaga has received two nominations and has won once .

Year

Nominated work

Award

Result

2009

Lady Gaga

Swiss Music Award for International Best Newcomer

Nominated

“Poker Face”

Swiss Music Award for International Best Song

Won

Teen Choice Awards

The Teen Choice Awards were established in 1999 to honor the year’s biggest achievements in music, movies, sports and television, being voted by young people aged between 13 and 19. Gaga has won one award from thirteen nominations.

The Record of the Year

The Record of the Year is an award voted by the UK public. The award began in 1998, and was televised on ITV before being dropped in 2006 after disagreements over the phone voting element. Since then it has been an online poll, administered through the Record of the Year website. Gaga has been nominated once and has won all of her nominations so far.

Year

Nominated work

Award

Result

2009

“Poker Face”

The Record of the Year

Won

TMF Awards

The TMF Awards are an annual television awards show broadcast live on TMF . Gaga has won three award from five nominations.

UK Music Video Awards

The UK Music Video Awards are organised by two of the key members of the team behind bug http://www.bugvideos.co.uk, the bfi southbank’s highly successful music video strand. Gaga has received one award